Three simple things: Connections, co-facilitating and bright spots

I have a problem with blogging. I do really enjoy it when I do it, and I know it’s important, but making it happen amongst busy work / business / family life is hard. I have an endless list of ideas, but often I find myself going too deeply into topics so it becomes less of a blog and more like an essay, that sits in draft. So, I thought I’d experiment with a different approach.

• One blog a week
• Focussing on three things
• Lessons learned from the week before to carry with us for the week ahead

I hope it allows me the opportunity to reflect, be realistic in my blogging aims and give a little clarity for the week ahead to keep me on track, moving forward on my business journey and sharing some useful insights along the way.

There will still be the occasional long post about ideas, events, books etc., but I want to blog more regularly and this experiment is to help me to do that. So here’s my first ‘three simple things’ blog post

Connections

Oh the power of our connections. Last week a close friend shared some big news – she has breast cancer, thankfully it’s been spotted early and it’s treatable. A diagnosis of cancer is quite possibly one of the scariest moments any of us may face. In the last three months, three women in my circle have had a diagnosis of breast cancer.

But if there’s one thing positive to take from this horrible news, it is that it brings to the forefront the power of our human connections. This time, a call out to a good friend in my professional network for some legal advice for my friend resulted in a rapid connection to two more super humans who know their stuff when it comes to employment law and were able to help my friend and give her some reassurance and support at a time when she needs it most. And I was able to help in some small part. I’m so grateful to my network, there’s so much power in it and way beyond this example. Thank you

Nurture your connections and check your boobs

Co-facilitating

I co-facilitated a communication planning workshop with a new partner in crime earlier this week. I’ve been delivering more and more workshops lately and I love them. It’s the co-creation element of them and working with a room of interested people that makes them enjoyable. It provides so much more energy to solve a problem than working through them alone. I’m all for collaboration in the right place. You can’t force it, it has to be democratic with shared goals, mutual respect and trust, and it doesn’t work for everyone or everything, but when it does work it’s really rewarding.

Working with a partner can bring a new element to facilitating workshops. You can spar off each other, support and fill the gaps, pick up when energy and ideas wane or challenge and offer a different perspective. Co-facilitated workshops may not work for everything, but when you’re pushing through a long list of outputs in a short space of time you need focus and determination that is better with two.

A contrasting pair of facilitators can help a team crack through the list and deliver the outputs at the end.

Bright spots

During a particularly hectic evening in our busy family home last week, a large spanner was thrown into the works.

It doesn’t matter what that spanner is, just how you respond to it. Amongst extended work, more to do than time permits, family haircuts, dinner and homework stresses a little explosion was set off.

We could have all let it consume us, but we didn’t. We rallied as families do. And it got me thinking about our work and how we respond to the chaos that often ensues from late demands, frequent changes to priorities/content/teams/projects and more.

We keep going and maintain our balance in part by focussing on the bright spots, the little nuggets of good stuff and nice things that sustain us.

That evening my bright spot was my children helping each other with their homework. My eldest was open to the advice from the youngest and actively listened, while the youngest was happy to give help without conditions. It was a little like seeing a leader listening and taking on the ideas and suggestions of employees who know it’s safe to speak up and honestly. Small but significant interactions can make a big difference to us all as individuals

Look for the bright spots.